Whatcha lookin' at? The attention of crowds shows no tipping points

Researchers sent people into crowded environments, asking them to stare at a single location. Although a few pedestrians stared along, the crowd's attention never reached a tipping point, and in one situation, men tried to look at anything else.

Haha, I do this all the time. Several times I think and stare off in space when I'm walking downtown and I can't help but count the number of people who stare at what I'm staring at for a few seconds. If you take public transportation, you can really confuse the heck out of people. My friend and I do this all the time on the bus, great times.

1) Walking around recording video is something terrorists do, but it's also something a lot of regular people do when visiting someplace. While we're told it's "suspicious" behavior, it's also fairly common behavior.

2) If I DID see something I thought was suspicious behavior, though, my attention and my gaze may not match. I might be paying very close attention to them, but I certainly wouldn't want them to know I was paying attention, so I would be watching out of the corner of my eye. Actually, I think people actively averting their gaze may be evidence of this.

Haha, I do this all the time. Several times I think and stare off in space when I'm walking downtown and I can't help but count the number of people who stare at what I'm staring at for a few seconds. If you take public transportation, you can really confuse the heck out of people. My friend and I do this all the time on the bus, great times.

What an accomplishment, confusing people on buses. How do you pull that off?

Haha, I do this all the time. Several times I think and stare off in space when I'm walking downtown and I can't help but count the number of people who stare at what I'm staring at for a few seconds. If you take public transportation, you can really confuse the heck out of people. My friend and I do this all the time on the bus, great times.

What an accomplishment, confusing people on buses. How do you pull that off?

and how would you know they were confused? rather than say their perception was "is this a person i should stay away from?"

I would expect the way a crowd reacts depends on what the crowd is trying to do. If they are looking for things, there is a low tipping point.

My sorta-uncle worked as a mechanic at Yellowstone National Park years ago. Here people are very eager to look at whatever you are looking at, especially if you have pulled over and got out of your vehicle.

My uncle enjoyed pulling over on a particular road with a good chance of seeing bighorn sheep. Well, he would pick a spot with no visible sheep, pull over and start acting like he could see something, binoculars and all. He would point out the "sheep" to the first person to pull over behind him, explaining that they blend in and are hard to see. Other passers by would see pointing and binoculars, and pull over also. Some people would even claim to see the sheep that wasn't there. Anyways, once there was 3 or 4 vehicles pulled over, my uncle would leave, expecting this to be self-sustaining. Sometimes he would even drive past 30 minutes later and there would still be people there, trying and pretending to see sheep.

He was a funny guy. Also, the purpose/location of the crowd obviously has a big impact on attention tipping points.

I would expect the way a crowd reacts depends on what the crowd is trying to do. If they are looking for things, there is a low tipping point.

My sorta-uncle worked as a mechanic at Yellowstone National Park years ago. Here people are very eager to look at whatever you are looking at, especially if you have pulled over and got out of your vehicle.

My uncle enjoyed pulling over on a particular road with a good chance of seeing bighorn sheep. Well, he would pick a spot with no visible sheep, pull over and start acting like he could see something, binoculars and all. He would point out the "sheep" to the first person to pull over behind him, explaining that they blend in and are hard to see. Other passers by would see pointing and binoculars, and pull over also. Some people would even claim to see the sheep that wasn't there. Anyways, once there was 3 or 4 vehicles pulled over, my uncle would leave, expecting this to be self-sustaining. Sometimes he would even drive past 30 minutes later and there would still be people there, trying and pretending to see sheep.

He was a funny guy. Also, the purpose/location of the crowd obviously has a big impact on attention tipping points.

Most people took that to mean everyone was incapable of recognizing good culture, but I think this study has better conclusions. If people are just plain busy, preoccupied with something, in a rush to get somewhere, the rest of the world is tuned out, whether it's strangers staring up into the sky, or Joshua Bell on a Stradivarius. Modern humans, especially in urban areas, are specialists. We don't have the brain capacity to always be curious about all of the world around us.

With bluetooth, cell phones, and tablets, we have have become used to people "staring off" into space. It also works the other way people are more distracted with what is going on in their own hand and pocket than they were in tue 1960s.

As for the suspicious behavior, I agree with the poster above the averted gaze is more of a sign of noticing the possible threat. If you are worried someone is going to blow up a trainstation you do not want to make eye contact.

Haha, I do this all the time. Several times I think and stare off in space when I'm walking downtown and I can't help but count the number of people who stare at what I'm staring at for a few seconds. If you take public transportation, you can really confuse the heck out of people. My friend and I do this all the time on the bus, great times.

What an accomplishment, confusing people on buses. How do you pull that off?

What I found really interesting about the "everyone looks too" effect is that there doesn't even have to be anything to look at.

So, of course we turned it into a flashmob...

We took a small group of people (a mixture of exchange students and Japanese friends), broke them into small groups of 2-5 and spread them around the front of the HEP5 building in Osaka, and then using one person as the cue, had everyone stop, look and point at a randomly selected building and say things like "oh hey, look at that, can you see that" in their various languages. Very quickly the others in the crowd were doing the same thing, taking photos of the general area were were pointing, etc... and kept doing so for some time after our people had left.

I would expect the way a crowd reacts depends on what the crowd is trying to do. If they are looking for things, there is a low tipping point.

My sorta-uncle worked as a mechanic at Yellowstone National Park years ago. Here people are very eager to look at whatever you are looking at, especially if you have pulled over and got out of your vehicle.

My uncle enjoyed pulling over on a particular road with a good chance of seeing bighorn sheep. Well, he would pick a spot with no visible sheep, pull over and start acting like he could see something, binoculars and all. He would point out the "sheep" to the first person to pull over behind him, explaining that they blend in and are hard to see. Other passers by would see pointing and binoculars, and pull over also. Some people would even claim to see the sheep that wasn't there. Anyways, once there was 3 or 4 vehicles pulled over, my uncle would leave, expecting this to be self-sustaining. Sometimes he would even drive past 30 minutes later and there would still be people there, trying and pretending to see sheep.

He was a funny guy. Also, the purpose/location of the crowd obviously has a big impact on attention tipping points.

If this were true then a cameraman taking a picture of a stand full of people looking at him would have to stare behind himself to fit in but as he turned around to stare he would lose sight of all the staring people. Showmanship would be impossible if the showman had to have his back to the audience because he felt he had to stare in the same direction as the crowd. This idea bears no relationship to reality in so many ways it seems impossible however if you have seen the movie where, by staring into the alien light you get taken over it would seem to make sense that some men would fight the urge to stare.

I would expect the way a crowd reacts depends on what the crowd is trying to do. If they are looking for things, there is a low tipping point.

My sorta-uncle worked as a mechanic at Yellowstone National Park years ago. Here people are very eager to look at whatever you are looking at, especially if you have pulled over and got out of your vehicle.

My uncle enjoyed pulling over on a particular road with a good chance of seeing bighorn sheep. Well, he would pick a spot with no visible sheep, pull over and start acting like he could see something, binoculars and all. He would point out the "sheep" to the first person to pull over behind him, explaining that they blend in and are hard to see. Other passers by would see pointing and binoculars, and pull over also. Some people would even claim to see the sheep that wasn't there. Anyways, once there was 3 or 4 vehicles pulled over, my uncle would leave, expecting this to be self-sustaining. Sometimes he would even drive past 30 minutes later and there would still be people there, trying and pretending to see sheep.

He was a funny guy. Also, the purpose/location of the crowd obviously has a big impact on attention tipping points.

Joke was on him when an actual sheep showed up after he left and that was why they were still there 30 minutes later.

Oddly, shortly after filing this story, i got to relive it. I was going to go to a spot with good views of the shuttle flyby of NYC, and was running late, so i kept looking to where i'd expect to see it. A few other people were doing the same, but most were completely oblivious.

I stood staring at a perched juvenile bald eagle with two other people last week right next to a busy bike/jogging path. Only two people out of probably 30-40 even glanced in the direction we were looking. I was also photographing for a little while.

"What they can't distinguish is whether the shared attention they do see is a matter of social conformity (staring along to fit in) or if there's an expectation that staring will provide some valuable information."

Ah yes, the either-or approach (either social or individual: couldn't possibly be both) that has served psychology so well.

And I came to this thread expecting to see an analysis of a crowd tipping cows or something

I do think we are less influenced now than decades ago. Look at how many youngsters admit they are pretending to do something on their phone to avoid even having to say "hi" to people they pass in their own workplaces or schools.

Tourist #1: What the hell is that?! [ squints ] What the hell is that? [ chuckling at himself ] What's that danged thing doing here! How did that get here? What the hell is that?! [ squints ] What the hell is that?! How'd that dang deal get here?! [ turns off-camera ] Hey! Come on over here and look at this deal!

[ Tourist #2 wanders onto the set to take a bewildered look ]

Tourist #2: What the hell is that?

Tourist #1: I don't know what the hell that is!

Tourist #2: What in the hell is that?!

Tourist #1: Hey, you kids! Get away from there!

Tourist #2: I would not mess with that thing..

Tourist #1: Don't put your lips on it!

Tourist #2: [ ever curious ] What the hell is this?

Tourist #1: Well.. get a photo of me with it, anyway!

[ Tourist #1 hands camera to Tourist #2, then walks away from camera view to have his picture taken ]

Tourist #2: Be careful with that thing. [ snaps Tourist #1's picture, as spark of ingenuity develops on his face ] Oh, I know what that is!

Tourist #1: [ returns next to Tourist #2 ] Well, what the hell is it?!

Tourist #2: [ looks closer ] What is that thing..?

Tourist #1: I don't even care what it is. [ pause ] What the hell is that?!

Tourist #2: I don't know what the hell that thing is.

Tourist #1: Oh, I know what it is!

Tourist #2: [ seeing it ] Oh, yeah.. oh yeah.. [ chuckles ]

[ Tourist #1 & #2 walk away from the stage. A beat, before their heads peer back into frame, more inquisitive than ever. ]

It is reassuring that people didn't act suspicious of these allegedly "terrorist" like actions. I am more afraid of our fear-mongering culture than of terrorists. So far, our government's response to terrorism has been more dangerous than the terrorists themselves. Just look at the body count from 911 vs all the innocent civilians who died in Iraq, which had nothing to do with 911.

In other words, if people were truly living in active paranoia, fearing everyone holding a camera, then all kinds of actions and legislation could be justified. I am reassured that the masses haven't bought into that nonsense to such a degree that merely taking a picture is cause for alarm.

What an accomplishment, confusing people on buses. How do you pull that off?

Walk around at any airport's arrivals terminal and you shall see just how easy it is. People walk right by a 4'x8' bright purple sign stating where to go to board the buses for the rental car lots in order to ask a driver of a bus for a parking lot where the rental car buses are.

Most people will not realize they got on the wrong bus until that bus is at least halfway to its destination.

Some people will ride a bus to each parking lot around an airport and still not know where they parked their car. One wonders if these people got off the plane in the right city...

Why do scientists keep ignoring the realities of such research, such as: Oxford is a touristic hotspot so it's not unusual for people/tourist to stare at sth. UK has a particular culture which affect how many ppl are to co-stare. In any case it's very subjective, temporal and ignores many factor beyind the area being currently researched..